There will be no blood
If there is one thing sports talk radio can do, and do well, is beat a dead horse. Beat that horse not only into the ground, but deeper than than the hole Hilary Clinton finds herself in.
Today's dead horse? The Mike Ribeiro slash of Chris Osgood.
Ozzie's attempt to win an Oscar falls on blind referee eyes...Yes, Ribeiro should have been suspended for using Osgood's chest as batting practice. Yes, Osgood instigated the whole damn thing by purposely clipping Ribeiro with the butt end of his stick. The NHL, in it's infinite lack of wisdom, fined everyone involved, and called it even. So be it, and to tell the truth, we all knew fines were going to result, and nothing more.
There were some callers and hosts who were upset the Wings didn't retaliate immediately, other than wrestling him down to the ice, after Ribeiro laid a two-hander on Osgood. Personally, I think it was smart on the Wings' part to not do something so stupid that could have ended in someone getting suspended. You don't retaliate in the playoffs, you do so in the regular season.
Think back to the Claude Lemieux hit on Kris Draper back in 1996 playoffs. (Hard to believe it was 12 years ago!) It was a much dirtier hit, severely injuring Draper. Rather than do someth8ing futile during the series, the Wings waited almost a YEAR before they finally retaliated.
We all know how well that turned out. Lemieux got beat to a pulp, and the Wings rode the emotion of that March all the way to the Stanley Cup.
As I'm writing this, the Red Wings are up 1-0 on the Stars, and Osgood has been standing on head. That's by far the best revenge.
Winning the series is much more important than the Wings getting their pound of flesh. At least till the '08-'09 regular season, when Ribeiro best have his head on swivel.
During the NHL playoffs, revenge is a dish best served...nest season.
It's over! Is Dallas that bad, or are the Wings that good? I think I'm voting for the latter.
ReplyDeleteI agree, the Wings are that good. They are a machine at this point, steamrolling every team, and everybody.
ReplyDeleteA good night all around, as the Cavs just beat the Celtics, evening the series. Talk about the Pistons' best case scenario!
I'm probably one of the handful of people in Detroit who didn't think the Lemieux hit on Draper was that bad (aside from the injury, of course). Lemieux' sin was his classless behavior afterward.
ReplyDeleteOne aspect of the whole affair (that stretched into the season after McCarty towed the turtling Lemieux across the ice to the Wings bench- was there ever a more classic 'Look at my bitch' moment?) I've always felt was overlooked was Lemieux' showing up for the 'rematch' with a face mask, and then keeping it on for the fight.